Violet Eyes (Rewrite)
by Amberdiamondswords
Summary: Calming purple. Brilliant green. Blood red. These are the three colors of the only XJ Units in existence. However, the calming purple, or Circuit, has just awakened, and she's been blessed with an amazing power that is being sought out by an old nemesis of Ratchet and Clank. Though it'll be tough, Circuit will uncover everything she knows when she lands on Kerwan. [Discontinued]
1. Chapter 1

**Reboot Initializing**

 **Damage- 64.3752% Working Capacity**

 **Memory Faulty**

 **Reboot Complete**

...

...

...

 _'...Mm...mm...hu...h-huh? What...what is going on? Owww...my head...my head hurts. Where...where am I? Why is it so dark?'_

The small robot stirred ever so slightly as she opened her eyes slowly, everything that was apart of her being ached. The first thing she saw was darkness with only the slightest bit of dark green light. She ran a system check on herself for a quick moment and made sure that her servos were up and running so she could raise her hands to wipe her eyes. However, as she raised her arms, they shook extremely violently, and pieces of rust fell off of her skin. Taking a few moments to let her arms settle down, the little robot finally managed to raise her hands to her face and wipe her eyes. The glass on her visual optics must have been covered in filth because her vision cleared up as she wiped her eyes, and there was a gross brown and green substance on the side of her hands when she pulled them away. But the clearing of the filth must have made way for the light if her eyes because a quite...calming purple color was filling the area around her and reflecting off of her silver casing.

Now that she could see properly and her mind appeared to be clearing up, she checked her surroundings. She didn't know where she was, but it was a dark and musky place that emitted quite the foul stench. The skies were dark and green and there were piles of garbage everywhere. Actually, there were a few pieces of garbage lying on top of her, signifying that she had been in this place for awhile.

Grossed out by the garbage that was on her, the robot did a check on her legs, which were fully functional, then she attempted to stand up. Though she was a bit wobbly at first, she managed to maintain a fair amount of balance. Then she looked around in all of the available directions that she could go with. It was time to do a little bit of exploring. So, with a sense of determination to find out where she was, the robot began walking towards an area that had the most light, because that meant that there would be people there. However, she was jerked to a stop and she fell down onto her rear as something pulled on her from the back. She shook her head and coughed a few times before looking over her shoulder to see what stopped her. She was surprised to see some sort of black fabric snagged on a rusted pipe that stuck out of the garbage pile. But what was more surprising was that the fabric was coming from her body. It appeared that she was wearing a long black jacket, and its long cape had been snagged on the pipe when she had stood up. The robot, who suddenly found herself being fond of the jacket, pulled it off the pipe and continued forward. As she did, a million thoughts raced through her processor. Who was she? Where was she? Why was she lying in trash? Why did she wake up in trash? She would knew the answers to all of these questions, but when she ran a check on her memory banks, an upsetting message alerted her:

 _Memory Faulty_

Memory faulty...her memory banks were corrupted. But why? What happened to her that made all of her memories and files collapse and disappear. It was most concerning. But not as concerning as her current health level.

 _Damage- 64.3752% Working Capacity_

The robot was working at barely over half capacity, but she didn't quite understand why. Though her servos were a bit shaky, her gyroscope was a tad off, and her stomach was hurting, she felt fine. Well, maybe not exactly fine, but well enough to wonder why her body was so damaged. Maybe there was something on her body that she had yet to take notice of? Something serious? But what sort of serious affliction could cause her working capacity to drop to 64.375-

"Ah!" The girl yelped as she slid down a short slope. She stumbled at the bottom and hit her right side on an old and work out spaceship wing. However, once her side made contact, a horrible pain ran through her system. "OWWWWW!"

She fell to her knees and grasped her right side ever so gently as to not make it hurt any further. After wiping away a few tears forming in her eyes, she looked down at her side as she uncovered it. The robot gasped when she saw a large hole inside her metal casing. It was covered in dried oil blood and there were several wires sticking out of it. It looked like a very serious injury, no wonder she was working at such a low capacity. But...how did she get this wound? Was it an accident or did someone purposely give her it? There were just too many questions to ask, and so little answers. She must leave this place and, with luck, find out who she was and what happened to her (if there even was a person who knew).

The little robot roamed around for several more minutes, wobbling and limping as the pain started setting into her system. There had to be people around here somewhere, or maybe a ship or taxi, something that could help her in anyway. Turned out that she was right. The sound of yelling was heard nearby, and it made the robot jump a little.

"Hey, Jim! I need you to take this truck to Kerwan, it's their garbage day!"

"Got it!"

With her heart racing and her side hurting, the robot scurried and stumbled into a very light and (mostly) garbage free area of the dump. She was nearly blinded by all of the large lights that were shining, but what they were shining on interested her. There were several garbage hovertrucks and one of them was getting ready to take off by the sound of it. Also, there were two people there, one of which was ordering the other around. But they were still people, and that meant that they might have some information that could be useful to her. She had to go and talk to them immediately!

...

...

...

But she couldn't. She couldn't explain why but...when she saw-no...when she heard those two men talking, something happened inside of her. Her heart started pumping oddly and her stomach tightened up even more. It was almost like...she was afraid. That was it, she was afraid of those two men. But why? They didn't do anything to her. Whatever the reason, she just had to suck it up and talk to them anyway, no matter how hard her body was trying to stop her to do it. She had to get information, no matter how much her nerves tried to stop her!

 _Vroom! Vroom!_

...Okay, maybe her nerves did win this one.

The robot looked back out into the mostly empty area and say that one of the men had disappeared, and the other one was inside of a garbage truck, getting ready to leave. This was not good. There was no way that she could stay here by herself, and she just couldn't bring herself to go and talk to the men that worked in the area. So...by the looks of the situation...there was really only one true solution that could possibly benefit her. It was crazy, yes, but it was the only thing she could think to do. Besides, the sooner she got out of there, the better.

So, taking a deep, non-air filled breath, the robot crouched down a little. Then she used her visual optics to scan the ship's structure. There was a bar located on the back of the truck that was ideal for hanging onto. It was perfect. So, with her mind made up and her heart pulsing like crazy due to the ludicrous idea, the little robot took off and sprinted towards the truck. The pain that lingered within her systems and side made her stagger and slow down. However, she refused to let her pain hinder her chance of escape, so she tried her very best to power through it. As the truck began taking off, she quickly ran and climbed up a pile of garbage and jumped as high as her short legs would let her. Her three fingered hands reached forward and they barely managed to grab the bar. The robot's body was jerked forward as the garbage truck took off into the sky. Her jacket flowed in the violent wind, but she managed to pull her body to the bar and keep her hold. She looked over her shoulder and saw that they were already a fair ways away from the garbage place. It turned out to be larger area than she had expected, it was a good thing that she didn't get lost in there.

The robot then closed her eyes and put her forehead on the bar and sighed. What in the universe was she doing? She was hitchhiking on a garbage truck without permission. She guessed that memory loss caused people to do crazy things, but that didn't mean that she was comfortable with it. However, the fact that she was riding a dirty garbage truck through space and going to who knew where, Kerwan she thought it was, was the least of her worries. All of the questions that she had were beginning to overload her. Who was she? What was she? How did she end up in the dump? Where did that hideous wound in her side come from? It was just too much for her, she could hardly take it. But she had to convince herself that it was all going to be okay. Maybe she would find someone that could help her at this Kerwan place. It was the only hope that she had. So, the small robot sighed again and opened her eyes slightly. The light from her eyes reflected off of the bar's metal surface. She smiled a tiny bit, she really liked the violet color. It was so pretty, so reassuring...so calming. Perhaps everything really was going to be alright. She was going to a whole new place that she could explore and maybe figure out some things about herself. But, until she got there, all she could do was hope.

* * *

 **So I've never actually rewritten one of my stories before, but I have to say, this is already starting to look better. This first chapter is over twice as long as the first chapter of the original Violet Eyes.**

 **As for how this is going to work and why I'm doing this, I had to face it: a large portion of Violet Eyes was written fairly crappy. I was still learning things about writing and I sort of just dived into it. But, now that I'm more knowledgeable and a better writer, I can finally give Violet Eyes the good writing quality that it deserves.**

 **I am going to change some parts here and there, but nothing too drastic. Like I might make a scene a bit more different than how it originally went. And no, that doesn't mean that I'm going to change the ending. If I change the ending to how people wanted it to go, then From Dreams to Nightmares wouldn't make any sense because it follow the original ending. So, yeah, not changin' the ending.**

 **Anyhow, Christmas is in less than 48 hours (for me at least. Some of us live in different time zones), and I REALLY need to get crackin' on the Christmas Weekly Oneshot if I want to get it up on time. So I guess I'll wrap the A/N up here.**

 **Make sure to leave a review while picking up your complimentary toaster!**

 **This is Amberdiamondswords, Lordess of Diamond Swordness, pledger to Tobuscus, signing off!**


	2. Chapter 2

It seemed brilliant at the time, but turned out that riding a garbage truck to get to a destination was possibly the worst idea ever.

The second that the truck blasted into space, the small robot was clinging on for dear life, barely being able to keep her grip. Her jacket's hood and cape were waving wildly behind her due to the strong wind. She managed to open one eye and looked over her shoulder in order to catch a glimpse at the garbage dump that she had woken up in. The little robot was happy that she had found the garbage people and the truck, because the place went on for miles, it was like a big maze that she would have most likely gotten lost in. She was glad to be out of there, but this garbage truck ride wasn't exactly a great replacement area. The truck was blasting into space, making razor sharp winds come and hit the robot's exposed metal skin. It was so cold that she thought that her systems to freeze. But, if she did freeze, she hoped that her hands would freeze to the truck, because they were going so fast that she could barely hold on. She had half a mind to climb to the front of the truck and tell the driver to slow down, but if she even loosened her grip by just a tiny amount, she would be gone. So she guessed that she would just have to keep hold and tough it out.

After what felt like hours on a miserable garbage truck ride, everything seemed to start slowing down and feel less...well, miserable. But the robot wasn't taking any chances as she kept a tight grip on the bar and had her eyes screw shut. But then the thought of just checking to see where she was right now occurred to her and how nice that would be to know. So, with a large amount of nervousness and fear about what she would see, the little robot opened one violet eye and looked down. Her other eye then opened as she saw possibly one of the most beautiful cities in the universe. There was a gentle blue and gold glow to it, with lots of tall shining buildings (even though it was night), plazas, fountains, parks, trees, it was just amazing. True, she hadn't seen many cities...actually, she hadn't seen any cities before as far as she knew. But she was sure that this one was the most beautiful. She could honestly stare at the city all day...but she couldn't. Why? Because she was so distracted by the city that she removed her focus from her grip. Her fingers slipped from the bar and her hands missed the bumper in an attempt to regrab the truck. She began falling down towards the ground, curling up in a little ball in order to defend herself from the impact.

 _CLANK! Clank clank clank..._

The female robot hit the ground hard and bounced a few times before settling down on her back. She was already feeling the intense pain, especially in her back and limbs. Her systems ran a quick check on her, and her working capacity lowered by eleven percent, and that wasn't good at all. At this rate, she would just deactivate and be left to rust on the cold hard ground.

 _Splat...splat...splat..._

The little robot picked up the sound of dripping on her audio sensors, and she tried to locate the source. Though it was very painful, she managed to sit herself up and looked around for a water pipe or something that would be making a dripping sound. There were no pipes around, but there was a small puddle of oil below her. At first, she thought that she had actually wet herself, but then a small drop of oil dripped from her face and onto the ground. She raised a hand and wiped the right part of her face, then checked the side of her hand. Sure enough, there was a steak of oil staining the silver metal. What was the meaning of this? Was she crying? No, that couldn't be it, she would be leaking from both eyes. Turned out, after a quick feel, her right eye was cracked and broken. Now that she realized it, her vision, mostly the right side, was pretty fuzzy, but she thought that that was just a temporary effect of falling to the ground. But nope, until she got her eye fixed, it was a permanent effect. She unzipped her jacket and took it off (after making sure that no one was around to see her without clothes on), she then prepared to put the black fabric on her eye so she could stop the bleeding. But, as she took it off, several hovercars zoomed past the alleyway that she was in, causing a strong wind to blow her way. The wind was so intense that her jacket slipped out of her fingers and blew away.

"No!" She cried out as she reached her hand upwards. But there was absolutely no way that she could reach it. The black jacket blew upwards and sailed over the right building. The small robot's shoulder lowered and soon her head. But she jumped when saw that she was now without any clothing. She quickly ducked behind a trashcan in case anyone walked by and saw her. This was bad. Her only article of clothing was gone. She would go looking for it, but she just couldn't go around walking in the...nude. There had to be something that she could cover herself with. Luckily, there was an old newspaper lying beside the trash can. Though it was kind of disgusting, it would have to do. She grabbed the paper and wrapped it around her body like a filthy, news filled cloak. She shivered as a wet piece of the paper splatted against her metal. This must have been what it was like to be cold. She didn't like it...at all.

Now that she was dressed properly...well, not properly. But now that she was at least being covered by something, she came out from behind the cans. Then she looked upwards, remembering the path that her jacket had flown it. It went over the right building, so it must be in an alleyway that was to the right of the one that she was in. She looked down the alleyway that she was currently in. It was dark and gross and filled with garbage. It was like being at the dump all over again. But conditions didn't matter right now. What mattered was finding her jacket and maybe some shelter. Then she had to take some time to try to remember who she was.

Murky puddles splashed its filthy water as she began treading down the alleyway. She walked slowly, whipping her head back and forth whenever the slightest sound was made. The city itself seemed beautiful, but its alleyways sure weren't. The small robot felt her heart pulsing faster as she took each step and went deeper into the eerie place. But fear was soon met with confusion as she came upon a crossroad. There were at least eight different alleyways that she could go into, but which one would have her jacket in it? This was starting to become a bit too much for the little bot. Her head was hurting and her stomach was terribly upset. She was surprised that she hadn't vomited yet (that garbage truck ride was a wild one...). But, vomiting thoughts aside, she needed to focus on her plan. Find the jacket, find shelter, and find out who she was...if she could. Though there was still the issue of figuring out which alleyway her jacket was in. With so many of them, it may take her all night to find it...

"Okay, I want a rematch when we get back inside..."

The robot's heart almost burst out of her chest as she heard a voice coming from the alleyway that was to the left of her. Trying to recover, she looked down the place where she heard to voice and tried to locate the source. She quickly slammed herself against the wall as an attempt to hide (which hurt a lot) as a silver door in the side of a building swung open. She peeked her head around the corner to see who it was. A peculiar creature came out of the building. So peculiar that it made the female robot tilt her head and form a confused expression. The best way that she could describe it was a giant cat. It had golden fur, stood on two legs and had orange stripes on its body and tail. He was really fluffy by the look of it, which made the robot giggle a bit.

The cat creature heaved a large garbage bag over his shoulder and into the dumpster. Then he paused for a moment to catch his breath, probably because he had to carry that bag all the way outside. Then he let out a relieved sigh and he looked down at his feet. "So what do you say? Can I get another chance to kick your butt?"

The female robot tilted her head again. Who was he talking to? There was no one there. Actually, it appeared that she was wrong when she heard an obvious robotic voice, "Who said that I am going to let you kick my butt? I have not lost a round in that game since last week, and I do not plan on losing one today."

"We'll see about that," the fuzzy creature said with a small smile.

The two (though she could only see one) seemed like that they were about to go back inside. The small robot backed up a bit to make sure that one of them didn't look over there and see the purple of her eyes. Speaking of the light from her eyes, it reflected off of the surface of a mirror. Seizing the chance to finally get a good look at herself, she gazed into the mirror. Her body was sort of strange. Her head was round with a metallic jaw, two huge eyes, and a short antenna on top (accompanied by a cute red bulb). Her torso was a cube, but she couldn't see it quite well because of the newspaper that she was wearing. Both her legs and her arms were short, and she had bolts for shoulders, elbows, knees, and ankles. As much as she didn't want to admit it, at first glance, she didn't quite look like a female. Or maybe she just wasn't used to her body's looks yet...yeah, that was it. But observing how she looked would have to be put aside for now, because something that the cat creature said caught her attention.

"Hey check this out..." he paused for a moment. "It looks like a little jacket."

The female robot's heart stopped, and then she stumbled for the corner again. She looked at the duo (the second one still wasn't visible), and her violet eyes went wide when she saw the fuzzy creature holding a tiny black jacket. Her jacket.

The creature jostled it around a bit, "Dang this thing is small. Heh, it's so small that it could fit you, Clank!"

Clank? Was that the name of the hidden second person? It must be because a second voice responded, "I would not touch that piece of clothing. It was in the dumpster, Ratchet, it is unsanitary to wear something that you found in the garbage."

"I didn't tell you to put it on, I was just saying that it's the perfect size for you. I wonder why someone would throw this out anyway...?"

So the fuzzy creature's name was Ratchet? Ratchet and Clank? The little robot made a weird expression to herself, those were some strange names. But she couldn't spend her time thinking about how weird those names were; that cat had her jacket! She had to get it back from him. So she stepped forward and prepared to go and get her possession back...but then fear took over. Instead of marching forward towards the two, she coward away from them. She could feel her heart racing as she tried again, but she just stepped back again. She couldn't do it, she was just too scared to get her jacket back. There was something about being near strangers that made her feel uncomfortable and scared, and this Ratchet guy, even though he had her jacket, was no exception. Plus, she had no idea what that hidden second person, Clank, was capable of. Heck, she didn't even know what he looked like. The only thing she knew for sure was that he was a robot.

"Can we please go back inside now? It is starting to get cold," Clank said.

"Yeah, come on, let's go. The smell of this place is gettin' to me, anyway."

Ratchet tossed the black jacket into the dumpster, and he and Clank went back inside, the silver door slamming shut. The female robot kept her ground for a few minutes, making sure that they wouldn't come back out. When they didn't and she confirmed that the coast was clear, she sprinted (well...it was more like stumbling quickly) down the alleyway and to the dumpster. She jumped and tried to grab the edge of it, but she was too short to reach it. The robot looked around, looking for something that could help her. She found a few crates nearby and she pushed them to the dumpster, arranging them to make steps. She climbed up the crates and across the closed part of the dumpster to the open part. Her jacket was lying right on top of the garbage. She got onto her hands and knees and reached inside, trying to grab the clothing. Her arm was a bit too short though, so she put part of her body inside so she could get closer. But that turned out to be a big mistake, because she slipped and fell into the dumpster, the lid closing as she landed.

'Oh-no...' she thought to herself. After taking a moment to switch the newspaper cloak for her black jacket, she banged her fists on the lid, trying to get out. She would call for help, but there was no one around, and she would probably end up being scared of them. But she couldn't get out on her own; she was too weak to lift the lid on her own. This was even worse than losing her jacket. Once again: this was bad.

"Hmm..." said a familiar voice suddenly, making the robot's heart stop. She heard the silver door open and some footsteps. "Did I drop some change out here...?" There were more footsteps heard, but after a few moments, she heard, "Huh...maybe in the lobby?"

The small robot attempted to stop moving, but the garbage was really loose. She and the garbage kept shifting around, so it was tough to keep quiet. Especially with a group of metal and glass bottles tipping over and tumbling down a small sheet of metal. The small robot held her breath, even though she didn't have the ability to breath, and hoped that Ratchet hadn't heard any of it.

"What was that...?" The creature said very quietly.

Footsteps were coming towards the dumpster. He was probably going to open the lid, which would provide her a way out, and possibly her only chance of getting out. The small robot had no choice but to get into a crouching position. She would jump out and book it before the creature could even glance at her.

The footsteps had stopped. He was right outside. The little robot got ready, it was now or never. The lid to the dumpster open, a fuzzy face appearing in the open space.

"Hello-AHH!" The robot attempted to shoot out of the dumpster, but she accidentally ended up headbutting Ratchet, making him stumble backwards. She herself had to take a moment to shake off a dazed state; that cat guy had a hard skull. She placed her head on the side of the dumpster, her left arm hanging over the side. Her cracked eye had begun to bleed again, which was bad. Meanwhile, Ratchet held a hand over his nose, which was throbbing painfully. He shouted at her. "What the heck was that for you piece of-..." When the water in his eyes, which had formed when he was hit in the nose, cleared away, he froze. The robot that had headbutted him looked familiar...

Way too familiar.

It took a few eye rubs and shakes of the head to really come to grip with what he was looking at. Round head, metallic jaw, short antenna, big round eyes...he was no longer doubting it. Ratchet was looking at a robot who looked exactly like Clank.

* * *

 **Well, I kind of totally forgot about this rewrite...my bad.**

 **So this chapter went a bit differently. This time Ratchet found Circuit without Clank. So there's an example of changes that I'm going to make to this story.**

 **Also, I got an announcement for you guys. I've already PM'd several people about this, but now Imma share it with all y'all. Yesterday, I bought the Ratchet and Clank Movie Novel and read through it (three times). So I know what's gonna happen. So, if any of you have any questions about the movie that you really want answered, but can't wait for the movie's release, feel free to PM me to get your question answered.** **I'm telling you right now: they totally nailed it with this movie. Oh my god, I can't wait to see it on the big screen. It's just...it's just really amazing.**

 **Make sure to leave a review while picking up your complimentary toaster!**

 **This is Amberdiamondswords, Lordess of Diamond Swordness, pledger to Tobuscus, signing off!**


	3. Chapter 3

Ratchet sat on the ground, eyes wide, mouth gaping, nose throbbing (and bleeding a bit). His heart was both racing and stopping. But this couldn't be called an overeaction, because he had a reason to be feeling like this. There was a robot who was the same model as his supposedly defect and Zoni-made friend, Clank. Yes, he had seen this situation before about eight years ago, but that was different. That Clank was built by a Secret Agent Clank obsessed Doctor Nefarious and used for an evil plan (which failed). While this...purple Clank was in a dumpster, alone, and all bloody. Ratchet had to get some answers out of this robot. He had to find out who he was and what he knew. Who knew? Maybe this Clank might also be part of a villainous plot. There wasn't just a clone of Orvus's son sitting in a dumpster for no reason. It was time for some interrogation. But, that might have been a bit hard, mainly because the purple clone had climbed out of the dumptser and began running away. Ratchet jumped and stumbled to his feet.

"W-Wait! Come back! I have to talk to you!"

The small robot was running as fast as her body would allow her to run. Her entire body ached more and more with each step, especially her right side. She had nearly forgotten the large hole in her casing, but now that she remembered, it hurt as bad as ever. But the pain didn't matter. What mattered was getting away from this Ratchet guy. He was currently coming after her (after stumbling a few times). No doubt he wanted to know why she was in a dumpster. But his determination to catch up and talk to her seemed to be for a deeper purpose. What was this man planning? A string of horrible thoughts ran through her head. What if was going to make her into some sort of test subject and undergo a variety of torturous experiments? Or take her apart and sell her parts on the black market? All of these ideas made her want to run faster, but she was already pushing herself to the max. Her working capacity level was becoming lower by the minute. She had to get away before her body decided to shut down her limbs to save energy.

But that was proving to be a hard task.

The cat person chasing her was much bigger and much faster than she was. In fact, he was already gaining on her, and he had only ran a few feet. As an attempt to out maneuver him, the small robot made a sudden ninety degree turn, turning into an alleyway that was to the right of her. Ratchet took a few moments to skid to a halt, which bought her some time, but not a lot of it. Within several seconds, the fuzzy creature was on her tail once again. The robot had to think fast. She scanned the contents of the alley for something, anything, that could help her escape. The small robot jumped a bit as she located a tower of cardboard boxes on the left side of the alley. Watching Ratchet behind her carefully, she drifted to the left until she reached the tower. Then, with all of her might, she slammed her whole body into the base of the boxes. The tower tilted and then fell, making cardboard boxes rain down. Ratchet tried to avoid them, but his foot got caught in one of them and he tripped. Then one landed on his head and he soon became buried in boxes. The little robot had managed to get out of box-falling range. She smiled; her plan had worked! Now it was time to get as far away from this cat as possible...

Though it wasn't as far as she wanted to go, the little robot stopped a few alleyways down. She would have gone farther, but she was pushing herself too hard. Her legs were shaking, her head was spinning, and her stomach was going crazy. She had to rest before she passed out from exhaustion. So, after checking to see if there was anyone around, she set herself down on the ground and let out a large sigh. It was nice to have a moment to just sit down and relax. But the pain was somewhat hindering what could be a moment of comfort. With nervous hands, the small robot grabbed the side of her jacket and lifted if up so she could see how her right side was doing. It looked disgusting (well, to a robot at least). Torn wires, bent metal, dried blood staining the silver surface, and wet blood leaking out of it. It was enough to almost make her puke. But she managed to hold it in because, well...she had nothing to puke up. Her stomach was completely empty, which was why it was currently roaring with hunger. The small robot placed a hand on her stomach and analyzed her situation. She couldn't go on much longer in her condition. If she did, she would just be forced to deactivate because her system would have pushed itself to hard...or worse. She pounded a fist on the ground lightly; there had to be some food and nanotech around here somewhere. She would just have to find it and...not pay for it.

The purple eyed robot sighed again when she thought of a new problem. Without money, she wouldn't be able to acquire anything that she needed, and she wasn't willing to steal everything; that would be bad. She placed a hand on her chin and tried to think of a solution to all of this. She needed help. It was a good thing that she had dropped down in a city full of people. Yes, it would involve talking to a stranger, which she didn't want to do, but desperate times called for desperate measures. There must be someone who was willing to help her with this whole mess. But who...?!

"HA!" The small robot nearly screamed as she suddenly thrown to the ground and became trapped underneath a cardboard box. Ratchet's voice came from outside the box, and he sounded quite happy with what he had done. "Gotcha! There's no escape from me this time!"

"..." The robot said nothing as she coped with the pain of being thrown onto the ground. She grabbed her side as the pain in that area increased by the moment. Her working capacity level was dropping fast. This was not good at all.

"Now then, let's see here." Ratchet flipped the box over, making the Clank lookalike fall onto the bottom. He looked at him curiously, but then with a bit of pity. He was covered in blood and one of his eyes was broken. He would fix him up when he got back to the apartment, but first thing was first. The Lombax's pitiful face was replaced by a stern and serious one. "Alright, I want some answers out of you! Who are you? Who sent you here?"

"I...I-I...I..." the Clank lookalike was shaking violently, and he was speaking so quietly that Ratchet could barely hear him. His voice was kind of high pitched for a male...

"Come on, spill it! Someone had to have sent you here! Who was it? Answer me!" Ratchet snapped. He may have seemed a bit mean, but he had to be if he wanted answers. But maybe he was a bit too mean, because tears were forming in the robot's eyes and leaking down his face.

"I...I...I do not know..." the robot whimpered. Ratchet's eyes twitched and his heart skipped a beat as he finally heard the voice more clearly. There was something about the tone and the pitch that was very alerting. It was higher than Clank's voice. So much so that he could call this robot a... "Please do not hurt me!"

The Lombax nearly dropped the box and his heart froze in place as his suspicions were confirmed. This was something that he was definitely not expecting at all. A million questions crammed their way into his mind as he told himself the truth: this Clank lookalike was _female_.

But he should have spent less time being shocked and more time paying attention to the small robot, because she kicked him in the chest and made him let go of the box. She fell to the ground and yelped in pain, and then she tried to make another run for it. Ratchet would have began running after her, but he didn't have to. One the Clank robot was a few feet away, she slowed down greatly, then she tripped and fell to the ground. The small robot then fell into a coughing fit; black oil spewing out of her mouth and side as she did. The alarmed Ratchet quickly went over to her and tried to see what the problem was. He lifted the robot's head and turned her towards him so he could talk to her, but the light in her eyes was fading and her eyes were closing. Ratchet shook his head.

"No no no, come on little guy-er, I mean girl! Stay with me!"

But it was too late. The small robot's body went limp and her eyes closed. It was alright though, because she wasn't dead, she was just unconscious. Most likely from oil blood loss. Ratchet stared at the robot and tried to think of something to do with her. He couldn't just leave her here to die, that would just be cruel. But, if he brought her back to the apartment Clank would most likely freak out at the sight of a female version of himself. He sighed as he weighed the two options and went with the more obvious choice. Clank may freak out, but it was better than just abandoning her here and leaving her to just rust on the cold hard ground. Plus, he still needed to find out where this little robot came from and why she was here.

Ratchet scooped the little robot up, which caused his clothes to become stained with robot blood, which he didn't mind too much. Then he carried her back to the apartment building (which was a bit difficult with the maze of alleyways). As he did, he kept looking at the small robot. It was incredible. Her entire appearance was exactly like Clank's, with the exception of the eyes and the jacket. The Lombax smiled a bit as he thought of the black jacket, which belonged to this robot apparently. No wonder he thought that it would fit Clank, because it actually would have, since it fit this robot perfectly.

Ratchet's smile soon became a pitiful one as he observed the robot's injuries. Dents, scratches, a broken eye, some pulled servos, and a nasty gash in her right side ("sorry," he said when he had pulled up and peeked under her jacket). And that was just the damage on the outside of her body. No doubt that her insides were just as bad or worse. She was going to take awhile to fix up, but something told him that it would be worth it.

The Lombax, while trying to shield the robot's body from people in the lobby, stepped into the elevator and rode it to the top floor. He went to his and Clank's apartment door and took a deep breath. Here goes nothing Ratchet told himself as he grabbed the doorknob. But his heart jumped when the door opened without him. He looked down and saw Clank looking up at him. He looked a bit worried.

"Ratchet, where have you been...and...and are you covered in...in _blood_?!" The small robot asked with wide eyes as he looked at Ratchet's clothes.

"My clothes aren't important. Clank...you're not gonna believe what I found." Ratchet knelt down and showed Clank what was in his arms. The robot jumped and stumbled backwards when he saw his twin, broken and covered in blood.

"Klunk?!" Clank suddenly cried out, believing that it was his red eyed doppelganger. "What is he doing here?!"

"Not Klunk," the Lombax said, shaking his head. "But the appearance isn't the only shocking thing..."

"What do you mean...?"

"What I mean is that...well...you may want to look nice when this robot wakes up, pal. Because this Clank is a _girl_."

* * *

 _Darkness...that was all that she could see. There was no light, no people, nothing. It was just an empty void of darkness that seemed to cast an exhausted and traumatic feeling upon her. It seemed to bring her down for a few moments before a third feeling managed to wriggle its way into her system: fear. The sudden increase in her heart rate alarmed her, and she wanted it to stop._

 _'But I must stand up to him' her own voice told her. 'I must tell him how I feel about all of the chaos that he is causing'._

 _She nodded to herself as her voice convinced her. She took a deep, non air filled breath and prepared to say the words. But, when she tried to yell them, another her talked for her. One that seemed much more aware of what she wanted to say and how to feel._

 _"This is not t fair! Why can you not let these people have a choice? You cannot force them to-" She said on the verge of tears._

 _"I've about had enough of you...kill her!" Yelled a high and shrill voice._

 _The clanking of small feet hitting the ground was heard. Then the sound of another pair of feet. And then..._

 _"No! Leave me alone! No! NO! AHHHHHHH!"_

 _She felt an invisible force pull her back away from the voice, which seemed to already be leaving her memory. Now was not the time to be visiting these voices. Now was the time to wake up._

* * *

Ratchet stood behind the couch, rings under his eyes and a cup of coffee in his hand. He kept his arms crossed and leaned forward so they were resting on the back of the couch. Lying down on the cushions below him was the Clank girl who was still deactivated. The Lombax looked impatiently at the clock hanging on the wall. 10:23 it read. He sighed and took a sip of coffee; this robot wasn't ever going to wake up at this rate. She had been charging for nearly twelve hours now, but she showed no sign of waking up. Maybe he was too late when he had fixed her.

Speaking of fixing her, that was one of the most longest jobs that he had ever preformed. He only received a couple hours of sleep last night because of it. But he really had his work cut out for him. Ratchet was surprised that she could even walk at all. Torn wires, broekn servos, the gash in her side, out of place gears, heart tubes dislocated and cracked circuitboards everywhere. It was a complete mess. Ratchet was glad that Clank was busy cleaning and sewing the girl's jacket, because he would have definitely thrown up if he saw all of that.

Speaking of Clank, the small robot was sitting somewhat impatiently in the chair closest to the couch. His metal hands were together, and he kept hitting his wrists together. Every so often, his eyes would look up at the female robot, then dart back down. Ratchet really couldn't blame him for doing all of this. If he saw a female Lombax, he would have been pretty nervous as well. But...Clank was in a special case. Sure, he seemed to be more of a 'ladies man' than his Lombax friend, but a female version of himself seemed a lot different.

From the very moment that Ratchet showed him the girl, Clank had been keeping a very close watch on her. He made sure that Ratchet was very careful with what he was doing when he was fixing her. Then, when Ratchet had started working in the girl's insides, Clank had taken it upon himself to take and clean her jacket, then sew it up because there were several tears in it. And even when he was away from the workbench and busy with the jacket, he kept telling Ratchet to be careful with certain parts of the girl's inside parts, and even gave him some advice and tips for fixing her. Of course, Ratchet already knew how to fix the girl, because it was just like fixing Clank, which he did all the time. But he pretended to find Clank's advice very helpful so he could have his friend feel like that he was helping repair the girl.

However, now that the morning hours were here and the robot wasn't responding to anything, things were starting to look grim. Ratchet knew that Clank was thinking that due to the slightly hopeless look on the robot's face. He looked down at the girl; maybe there was something still wrong with her? The Lombax stood up and went into the garage only to come back with a screwdriver. Clank looked at Ratchet with alarm as he sat down on the couch, uncovered the girl, and unzipped her jacket.

"Ratchet, what are you doing? That is very rude!" Clank said, trying to look away from the female.

"I know, but I have to check to see if I missed something. She's not waking up Clank, and that's not good. So I'm gonna take a quick look..." Ratchet flipped the girl's compartment open and stuck the screwdriver inside. He got closer so he could see a bit better. But, as he did, the robot slowly shifted her hands on the couch and sat up a bit, but her eyes were still closed.

The small robot still felt like that she was surrounded by darkness and emptiness. She didn't feel like that she was anywhere. This must have been some sort of weird dream aftershock, and she didn't like it very much. She couldn't hear anything, see anything, of feel anything...wait, yes she could. The small robot was feeling something, and it was really weird. It was coming from her torso, around the stomach area. It felt like that something was poking her from the inside. But what could be causing it? Slowly, she could feel the air around her become lighter and the darkness soon became brighter. Until suddenly...

"Hey, are you uh...are you doin' alright?"

Time itself seem to freeze as the girl robot was thrown out of her strange dream and back into reality. And the first thing she saw besides the morning sunlight, which seemed to shine like the finest of ambers, was a strangely familiar furry face that was too close to her for comfort. His emerald eyes felt like that they were reflecting off of her silver skin as he stared at her. But the robot was more concerned with the person's hands instead of the eyes. A pair of gloved hands hovered above her uncovered torso; one holding her down and the other had a screwdriver. And that screwdriver was inserted insider her...chest compartment...

The little robot yelped as she shoved the furry creature away and got off of whatever she was lying on, a couch by the look of it. She had to shove aside something else, some metal thing, but after that she managed to get to the floor, she scurried to a chair and hid behind it. She closed her chest compartment and stumbled for her jacket, which was now falling off. Her heart then jumped as she heard voices, one of which was from the orange creature.

"Well, I guess she's okay if she can move like that."

"Yes, but, um...you seemed to have frightened her," said another voice, which the robot thought that she recognized.

"W-Wait! _I_ frightened her? What's there to fear? I look like a fluffy cat!"

The robot's antenna flashed as she believed that she recognized both of the voices. Though the nerves inside of her metal casing twisted at the thought of being in the presence of strangers, she peeked from behind the chair. Her eyes went wide when she saw who they were: Ratchet and the hidden robot from the other night. But what really got her was the hidden robot. He was silver, had a round head, two big eyes, short arms and legs with three fingered hands...he looked just like her! He was a robot from her model! The only difference between them was the eye color. Her's were purple while his were green...a bright brilliant green. The small robot's shoulders dropped a little; she had never seen such eyes before...then again, she had only seen two pairs of eyes in her lifetime...she guessed.

Forcing herself to pry her attention from the male's eyes, she observed her surroundings. It appeared that she was in some sort of large apartment. It was very nice, she had to admit that. And the view outside the window was absolutely gorgeous. There was the sunrise, clouds, buildings hovercars and a bright blue sky. It was amazing. Ratchet and that other robot were lucky to be living in such an awesome place. Speaking of those two, they were still bickering about who had scared her. They were distracted, that meant that she could escape. Even though Ratchet had brought her here so she could have shelter and there was a robot of her model here, she couldn't trust these people. She didn't know them. So, she scanned the apartment and located the door, and she began creeping towards it while keeping an eye on the two. It was funny, it was like they had forgotten that she was there, which would make her escape easy. But she quickly had to take that statement back as she heard a voice when she arrived at the door.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going?" Ratchet said as he hopped over the couch and rushed to the door, putting a hand on it so she couldn't open it. The small robot coward before the bigger creature and shook a little. It looked like that she was trapped in this place. Maybe there was somewhere that she could hide for the time being. So she prepared to make a run for it, but Ratchet was already way ahead of her. "Oho, no! You're not gettin' away again!" The second that the girl had turned around he grabbed her by the hood and lifted her up. Then he hung her hood up on a coat rack, making her dangle a few feet above the ground. The girl struggled to get down, but she was totally stuck like this until the fuzzy creature helped her. Ratchet folded his arms as Clank walked up beside him. He glared at her, "Now then, I think it's time that you start answering some questions. Who are you?"

"Uhhh...I..." the girl tried to think of something to say, but her memory banks wouldn't bring up anything about her. So she told them the truth, "I...I do not know."

"You don't know who you are?" Ratchet asked, raising a brow. "Okay, I guess personal information isn't really that important, we can just skip that question. So why are you here?"

"I fell off of a garbage truck," the small robot whimpered.

"A garbage truck?" Clank said curiously as he looked at Ratchet. Then he looked at the girl, "Why were you in a garbage truck?"

"Uhh..." she tried to hide her face, which was starting to become red. That robot's voice was somewhat mesmerizing, and his green eyes were looking right at her. But she managed to shake it off and replied, "Because I was in a garbage dump. I-I woke up there and hitched a ride as a truck took off."

"So why were you in the dumpster outside our apartment building? Seems to be a bit more than a coincidence," Ratchet said, starting to get very suspicious.

"Y-You threw away my black jacket and I wanted it back. I lost it after the wind blew it away and it ended up in your alleyway."

The Lombax groaned, this was getting them nowhere. Sure, it was nice to know what she had done when she got to the city, but that wasn't exactly helpful. There was one more question that he needed to ask and needed to be answered. "Who made you?"

"Huh?" The girl tilted her head a bit.

"Who made you? A robot like you doesn't come off of a factory line. Someone must have made you by hand, so who was it?"

"I...I...I do not know..."

"Oh really?" Ratchet walked over to the fridge and pulled out a can of oil. Then he showed it to her and put it just out of her reach, "Breakfast says otherwise."

The female's eyes went wide at the sight of oil. She placed a hand on her stomach as it sensed the presence of food. She tried to reach for it, but Ratchet was holding it too far out for her to grab it. So she placed her hands together, "U-Um...sir? May I please have the oil?"

"Tell me who made you, first," the Lombax said firmly.

"I do not know!"

"You're lying."

"No I am not! Please, sir, you must believe me!"

"Ratchet, maybe we should listen to her," Clank said, tugging on the Lombax's pant leg. But he didn't listen.

"Tell me who your creator is!"

"I do not remember!" The girl cried out.

"How can you not remember who made you?"

"Because I lost my memories!"

After that, Ratchet's face softened, and he lowered his arm to his side. A great sense of guilt was now washing over him as he realized all of the torment that he had just put the little robot through. He wished that she had mentioned losing her memories before, then none of this would have happened. But he couldn't really put the blame on her, it was his fault for being such a jerk. He needed to work on being a nicer interrogator.

Ratchet spoke with a calmer and much nicer tone, "You really don't remember anything?"

The small robot shook her head, "My memory is faulty. I cannot remember anything prior to waking up in the garbage dump..."

The Lombax sighed and gave in. He would have to go deeper in order to find out who this robot was. He smiled a bit and walked towards her, "Alright, I believe you. Looks like we'll have to check your memory chip to see if there's anything hidden in there that you can't access." Ratchet was about to grab her jacket, the the small robot whimpered and squirmed a bit as he reached for her. She slapped his hand away before he could touch her. Ratchet yelped a bit and rubbed his injured hand, "Hey, I'm not gonna hurt you or anything. I was just gonna help you down. What? You don't trust the guy who spent hours fixing you?"

"Fixing me...?" The small robot looked down at her body and was surprised to see shiny silver metal, completely clean and unstained. She never noticed this, probably because she had been too busy being scared out of her mind. But it was very impressive work. Her battery was charged, systems were at 100% working capacity, her eye was fixed and vision was sharpened for a more clearer picture, the dents were gone and...so was the hole in her side. It was gone. It was like it had never been there in the first place. Ratchet really did fix her. She looked at the Lombax with apologetic eyes and tried being a little submissive. Ratchet grabbed the back of her hood and lowered her down to the ground, then he tossed her the can of oil. She tried to catch it, but it hit her hands and fell to the floor. She picked it up and held it tight in her hands, then she looked up at Ratchet, who was motioning her to follow.

"Come on, we can check your memory chip in the garage." Though she was hesitant at first, the girl walked alongside Ratchet, the male version of her also following. She looked at him with a curious expression and wondered who he was. He seemed pretty nice. Ratchet must have noticed how confused she looked because he spoke up, "By the way, I'm Ratchet. That's Clank you're staring at."

Clank looked at the girl, who quickly turned her head away. The male tried to clear the embarrassing tension in the air by talking to her. "So, what is-" he cleared his throat as his voice cracked, "I mean, do you remember what your name is by chance?"

The girl dug into her memory banks and looked for some sort of name, but she came up with nothing. It was strange, usually finding out their name was a person who was suffering from amnesia's top priority. But there was nothing about her name that she could recall, so she shook her head, "No, I do not remember it. I do not even know if I had a name at all."

"No name, huh?" Ratchet said, making both robots look at him. It looked like that it was time to name another Clank robot. It had been twelve years since that last time he did it. He hoped that he wasn't rusty. "I guess that we'll have to give you one for the time being."

"Really?" The girl asked somewhat excited. A name for her? That sounded quite amazing to her. But she wondered who she would become. It looked like Ratchet was thinking of the same thing as he opened the door to the garage and let the two robots in.

"Yeah, why not? But what will we call you? I named Clank after the clanking sound in his broken leg when I first found him..." Ratchet leaned up against his workbench and looked down at the girl. "So I guess we'll have to name you after something that relates to you."

"Like what?" She asked.

"Let's see...we've got Jacket...Alley...Wire...Hole, Box, Silver, Garbage-"

"Ratchet!" Clank snapped at the last name. The Lombax raised his hands defensively.

"I'm kidding! I'm kidding! I'm gonna be serious now...um...oh! I've got one!" Ratchet opened a drawer in his workbench and pulled out a dusty circuit board. The girl tilted her head at the sight of it. He showed it to her, "When I was fixing you, your machinery was an abundance of cracked circuitboards. They were a pain to fix and replace, but I managed. But, with that event in mind, how about we call you Circuit? It would be Circuitboard, but just the 'circuit' part sounds nice. What do you think?"

The small robot took the circuitboard into her hands and observed it after brushing away some dust. A maze of lines and circles covered the emerald green square. Two of the circles were right next to each other, and she looked at them closer. The violet light reflected off the surface, making the two circles look like her large eyes. After realizing that, the small robot pulled the circuitboard away and nodded to herself. Circuit. That was the one. She looked up at Ratchet, "I like that name."

"Sweet. Circuit it is." Ratchet sat down at his workbench and began pulling out various wires, which would be used to check her memory chip. He looked over his shoulder, "Setting this up may take a little bit. Go ahead and drink your oil. I can hear your stomach growling from here..." Newly named Circuit nodded after remembering that she had food in her hand. She opened it and prepared to drink it before Ratchet looked back over his shoulder. "Hey, Clank, can you help me with this?"

Clank walked past Circuit, who swore that he had flashed a smile at her, and hopped up next to Ratchet. The female stood and listened as the two went back and fourth about which wire went where. It went on for a few minutes and the Lombax suddenly smiled and laughed a bit. "Okay, so we'll attach this one to this one, hook this one up to the TV, and I'll strangle you with this one. How does that sound?"

Clank chuckled, "At least I will go out knowing that you could not beat me in Grand Theft Hovercar V."

Ratchet glared at Clank and flicked him on the head, then pushed him onto his rear. Circuit was about to tell the Lombax that that wasn't nice, but the two started laughing, which made her tilt her head. Then she realized that it had not occurred to her that these two obviously have some sort of friendship with each other, since they lived together, but it was obviously a strong one. And, she wasn't going to lie but...it was actually really nice to watch. But there was something in her chest that seemed to twinge when she did watch the two joke around with each other. She didn't understand what it was at first, but after some analyzing, she believed that she had reached a conclusion. They had saved her, provided her with shelter, treated her wounds, gave her food and a name...and her nerves weren't telling her to stay away from them. Circuit knew what she wanted to do with these two friends...and it was to be their friend too. Only time would tell if she could bring herself to do it.

* * *

 **OH. MY. GOD. Talk about chapter extension! 5,754 words! Nearly twice as long as the original Chapter 3!**

 **Now, for an explanation:**

 **"I named Clank after the clanking sound in his broken leg when I first found him..."**

 **Yes, from now on in my stories, I am going to be using the movie/PS4 game canon instead of the 2002 game canon. Why? Because I like the movie/PS4's better. Provides a bit more detail, ya know?**

 **Make sure to leave a review while picking up your complimentary toaster!**

 **This is Amberdiamondswords, Lordess of Diamond Swordness, pledger to Tobuscus, signing off!**


	4. Chapter 4

"Alright, I think we have everything set up," Ratchet said as he connected the end cable to a monitor. He had never looked into a robot's memory before, but, if he and Clank were correct, this method should work. The Lombax looked down at Circuit, who was waiting patiently on the floor. He motioned her forward and she obeyed. Ratchet was somewhat surprised with how well behaved Circuit was; the person who built must have been a nice guy who taught her well...or a bad one who didn't, he didn't really know. Hopefully there were about to find out. He grabbed Circuit's hood and lifted her up onto the workbench. Clank getting down onto a stool so there was enough room for her. The female robot sat down and watched Ratchet pick up the end of the cable that wasn't in the monitor. He flipped open Circuit's head panel, "Hold still so I can get this in…"

"'Get this in'? Wh-What exactly are you implying-AHH!" Circuit yelped as Ratchet's hand went into her head, but he quickly pulled it out when the robot reacted.

"Sorry! Did that hurt?" The Lombax asked.

"N-No! It is just that...wh-why did you stick your hand in my head?!"

"Well, I have to get to your memory chip _somehow_. What? Do you not like it?"

"No!"

"Huh...Clank was never bothered by me working in his head. And you're the same as him," Ratchet said, motioning a hand towards Clank.

"It must be different for females," Clank guessed. Ratchet had never worked on a female robot before, so he didn't quite know how comfortable one was when it came to going into her head. Plus Circuit had just met him, so she probably wasn't too thrilled to have a stranger messing with the inside of her head. However, he had to get in there so he could get to the memory chip. So he looked at Circuit, who had a defensive hand on her head panel.

"Look, having someone's hand in your head is uncomfortable, I understand that. But I need to get to your memory chip so we can find out what happened to you."

Circuit stared at Ratchet for a moment and considered what he said. It was true, he needed to get her memory chip, but having a stranger's hand inside her head was just so….strange. However, she knew that Ratchet only wished to help her, he had already proven that. She had to trust him. So, the female robot closed her eyes and opened her head panel, allowing Ratchet to go ahead and insert the cable. The Lombax attempted to work quickly for the sake of Circuit, and he dug around until the found her memory chip. He plugged the cable in and then began Clank began tapping away at the keyboard and brought up information from the memory chip. As he did, Circuit took a moment to look around the garage. There were disassembled weapons parts and tools scattered about, a sleek ship resting in the other side, and a strange looking vehicle sitting about several feet away. By the all of the tools lying around it, it was currently under maintenance. She was about to ask Ratchet what it was before Clank spoke.

"Hmm...interesting."

"What?" Ratchet asked, turning the monitor towards him.

"It appears that there is nothing on this memory chip except Circuit's memories of waking up in the garbage dump and coming here. The rest of the memory files, if there were any, have been so corrupted that they cannot be saved. They are gone."

"What are you saying?" Circuit asked worryingly.

"I am sorry, Circuit, but we cannot recover your lost memories. We cannot find out what happened to you or who your creator is."

"Aw man, that...that sucks!" Ratchet said, frustrated that he couldn't find out exactly who Circuit was. But it couldn't be helped. And that just made him even more frustrated. He tried his best to look calm as he disconnected the cable from the monitor and Circuit's head. "Sorry, Circuit, but it looks like that we can't find out who you are or what your previous life was like. Your amnesia is...well, it's permanent." Circuit looked awfully upset with the news. She was looking forward to finding out who she was, but they just ended up at a dead end, and there was no escape from it. Ratchet felt really bad for her. He didn't know what he would do if he had permanent amnesia, but he guessed that it would suck...a lot. The Lombax leaned up against the workbench and sighed, "Well...maybe it's not all bad. I mean...w-what if you didn't like your previous life and you wanted to forget about it? This amnesia might be a forgotten wish come true for you!"

Circuit looked totally unconvinced by Ratchet's theory of not liking her other life. She suddenly scooted off the workbench and onto the floor. Placing her hands in her pockets, the small robot nodded at Ratchet and Clank, who were watching her curiously.

"Th-thank you for everything, Ratchet and Clank. I-I...I am going to go now."

"What?" Clank asked.

"Whoa whoa whoa!" Ratchet jumped in front of Circuit before she could make it to the garage door. "Where exactly do you think you're going?"

"I already told you; I am leaving. You two did all that you could for me, and I thank you for that, so there is no reason for me to stay here any longer."

"Uh-huh, and where are you gonna go exactly?" The Lombax asked, placing his hands on his waist.

"U-Uhhmm...well, I uh…" Circuit stammered. She honestly hadn't thought of that, all she had thought of was leaving Ratchet and Clank's place. It wasn't that she didn't like them, it was just that she didn't want to intrude on their lives. But Ratchet was thinking differently. He knelt down and placed a hand on his chest.

"You can stay with us, ya know."

"Huh?" The little robot looked up at him. She shook her head and stuttered, "O-Oh, no, I cannot do that. I-I-I do not wish to be a burden."

Ratchet smiled and even laughed a bit. He wasn't laughing at her because of her nervousness, no, that would have been mean. He was laughing because he had expected this robot to be just like Clank, just with a female voice. But he was wrong. Circuit was almost nothing like Clank. She was shy, submissive, and she seemed to stutter a lot. The only things that she had in common with Clank were the looks, manners and politeness, and that wasn't a bad thing. Ratchet sighed to himself, he couldn't let Circuit go out into Metropolis alone, she wouldn't make it out there. It would be best if she stayed at the apartment with him and Clank. Besides, her entire existence was still a huge mystery, and it was important that they keep an eye on her in case she manages to remember something. Someone had to have built her, and he wanted to find out who. But he would never be able to do all of this if Circuit left, so he had to convince her to stay.

"Look, you have nowhere else to stay, and you don't have any money for a hotel or an apartment. Just hang here for a few days and see how you like it. Besides, you still owe me for the name."

That statement was enough to shut Circuit up. It was true, Ratchet was the one who gave her a name when she didn't have one. She really did owe Ratchet. So, she shuffled her feet shyly and her hands came together as she looked up at the Lombax, "...Okay...I-I will stay..."

"Cool..." Ratchet reached a hand out towards Circuit, making her panic. Thinking that he was going to strike her for not listening to him the first time, she flinched severely, closing her eyes and looking away, waiting for pain to come. However, it never came. Instead, Ratchet's hand just stayed on her head. She opened one eye and looked curiously at the Lombax, who was looking curious himself. "Uh...are you alright?"

Surprised at the non-violent action, Circuit nodded and quickly backed up so Ratchet would take his hand off of her. Then she pulled her hood over her head and walked passed the Lombax, all while trying to avoid eye contact with him. That certainly strange. She thought for sure that he was going to hit her, but he ended up just gently placing his hand on her head. Was that some sign of...affection? No...no that couldn't be it. Who would want to show affection towards her? It must have been a very, very, very, very light hit...yes, that was it. Circuit was so absorbed in analyzing the oddness of the situation that she forgot to look where she was going, and she ended up accidentally bumping into Clank. She gasped a bit at the sudden appearance of the robot and lowered her head a bit, "I-I am so sorry! Eh...excuse me..."

Clank watched with pity as the female robot walked deeper into the garage and looked at the the stuff that was lying around. Ratchet came up alongside him and placed a hand on his waist while shaking his head, "There's something wrong with that girl..."

"She is so submissive. I cannot help but feel bad for her," Clank said. He looked up at Ratchet, "You do not think that it has something to do with how she was treated in her previous life, do you?"

"I dunno. Maybe she was treated badly in other life. She did end up in a garbage dump after all. I mean, who would throw a person in the garbage and leave them there to rot? That's just...mean!"

"Indeed it is," the robot said, watching Circuit walk around the garage. She observed several disassembled weapons, and tried to be careful in case one of them decided to go off. Clank lowered his voice a bit more and leaned in towards Ratchet. "So, what _are_ we going to do with her?"

Ratchet sighed and shrugged, "I guess we'll just keep her here and see if she manages to remember anything. Also, one of our rivals or a villain can easily mistake her for you, so we need to keep her safe from those people..." The Lombax saw Circuit lightly tap a broken Pyrocitor and it spewed out a few flames, scaring the purple eyed robot. She stumbled backwards and her heel hit a wrench, which caused her to fall backwards and land on her rear. Ratchet's ears lowered a bit, "And herself."

Ratchet, followed by Clank, walked over to Circuit and helped get back on her feet. The female robot quickly thanked him and then she pulled her hood over her eyes, slightly embarrassed. She tried to shuffle away, but she ended up hitting her head on something metal. Backing up and rubbing her head, Circuit looked up to see what had hit her head on. She was startled by the sudden presence of a large and strange vehicle. It looked like a motorcycle (minus the wheels) and spaceship mixed together. She looked up at Ratchet and pointed to it. "What is that?"

"That's my rocketsled," Ratchet said, walking up next to the vehicle.

"R-Rocketsled?"

"Yep. I've been ridin' this thing ever since I was a little kid. Of course, I've been making several modifications to it over the years. Despite its age, this thing is in the greatest shape than it's ever been!" Ratchet patted the windshield of the rocketsled proudly. However, on the third pat, the windshield detached from the sled and fell to the floor, shattering into tiny glass fragments. Circuit and Clank looked up at Ratchet, who was pulling off one of the most unamused faces ever. Circuit felt a chuckle rise up in her throat and attempt to come out of her mouth, but she tried to swallow it. Laughing at this situation would have been very rude. Luckily, Ratchet spoke, distracting her from the laughter trying to come up. "Alright...let's all just pretend that that didn't happen." Ratchet placed a hand on the handlebars and leaned on it, only for those to fall off as well, "Or that."

Circuit was finding it to be much harder to keep her laughter in. If she was an organic, her cheeks would have been red from holding it all in. But, for that sake of not being rude or mean, she managed to keep on holding it in. Then she watched Clank walk past her and start picking up the broken glass. He shook his head, "Honestly, Ratchet..."

"What? Come on, we can fix this in no time! It's just a loose bolt in the handle bars...and an unstable windshield gripped and slot...and it looks like that this part could be oiled...and over here could use a tune up...okay, you know what?" Ratchet, determined thanks to his mechanic senses, gathered up several tools on the floor and put one (careful) hand on the sled. "Clank, we're fixing this thing up right now!"

"R-Right now?" Clank asked. He glanced at Circuit, who was just as confused as him. He pointed a hand towards her, "But what about Circuit? We cannot just forget about her, drop everything, and fix the rocketsled. Her situation is too important to-"

Ratchet cut him off, "Hey, Circuit said it herself, there's nothing more that we can do for her. Besides, now she can see what we do for a living: fixing broken...well, anythings." The Lombax then got up and walked towards the workbench, "I'm gonna grab my tools real quick."

Circuit made her way around the broken glass and then walked up to Ratchet. He held her own hands and shuffled her feet cutely, "U-Umm...Mr. Ratchet? What would you like me to do while you and Clank are busy with the rocketsled?"

"Oh! Ummm...uhhhh...hold on...uhhh..." Ratchet looked around the workbench, trying to find something for Circuit to do or play with while he was fixing the rocketsled. The best thing that he could find, though, was a sketchpad he used to use for drawing blueprints. He pushed it into Circuit's arms along with a pencil, "Uh, here. Draw me somethin'."

"Draw? But...what if I am not a good artist?" Circuit asked worryingly.

"Nonsense, I'm sure that you'll be alright at it. Maybe not as good as me-"

"Ratchet..." Clank growled from across the room.

"-but you'll probably be good at it, too!" Ratchet finished with a nervous smiled being flashed towards Clank.

"I uh...I-I will try my best, Mr. Ratchet," Circuit said innocently.

Ratchet gave a breathy laugh, "Circuit, enough with the 'mister' business. Just call me Ratchet."

The small robot nodded, showing that she understood him. No more calling him mister, she had to remember that order.

Ratchet then lifted Circuit up onto the workbench so she could sit there and draw. He patted her on the head twice, not noticing that Circuit had flinched during the first pat. The little robot stared at the Lombax as he returned to the other little robot. Her purple eyes shined curiously. That was the second time that Ratchet had shown some sort of sign of affection towards her. What exactly was that Lombax doing? What did she do to be treated so nicely by him? The question seemed to mysterious that it made her antenna flash a few times. But she managed to make it stop. Circuit attempted to distracted herself by opened the sketchbook in her lap to a blank page. She guessed that it was time to start drawing something. But...what was she going to draw? She stared at the white piece of paper, tapping her pencil against it, making tiny little black dots as a result. Then she got an idea and looked up from the sketchbook. Circuit scanned the garage, looking for something to sketch. She observed her options. A broken Pyrocitor...several ship engines...some rusty tools...a busted Personal Hygienator...this might have been harder than she had expected. But, lucky for her, there were two perfectly candidates for sketching sitting right in front of her.

Circuit perked up as she saw Ratchet sitting on the rocketsled and Clank standing behind him on a smaller seat. It was almost like that they were riding it. Inspired, Circuit picked up the pencil and began her work. She was going to fail at it, she knew that much, but she at least wanted to try. How bad at drawing could one robot be?

 _Several hours later..._

Ratchet heaved his wrench backwards, letting out a strained and frustrated groan as he did. But the groan turned into a silent smiled as he heard a click come from the turbine. Finally it was tightened; one more round of pulling the wrench and he would have broken his back...or arm...or leg...any body part, really. The Lombax jumped off of the rocketsled and landed behind it so he could give the booster a quick check. When he confirmed that everything was in order, he looked at Clank, who was putting the handlebars back in place.

"Alright, Clank, I think that everything's shipshape. Go ahead and fire her up!"

"Perhaps you should move away from the sled, Ratchet. In case something happens," the robot said.

"Nothing's gonna happen. I've double checked everything. Now fire her up!" Ratchet said enthusiastically. Clank sighed as he plopped down in the front seat and placed his hand on the ignition. He turned the key and the sled's engine roared to life. It rose roughly one foot off of the ground and seemed quite content. Ratchet, after making sure that everything was in check, nodded to himself and placed his hands on his waist. "See? I told ya that everything was fine! Like I said, this thing is in the greatest shape that it's ever-AHG!"

The Lombax was startled by a cloud of smoke emerging from the back of the rocketsled and swallowing his entire being. He waved his hand and coughed a bunch as the smoked entered his mouth. Clank assisted in blowing the smoke away by using one of his Heli-Pack blades. When the smoke was gone, Ratchet opened his eyes and shook his head. Well, so much for a healthy rocketsled. He wondered what had made it malfunction so badly. He also wondered why Clank was laughing so much. "Hehehehehehe!"

"What's so funny?" Ratchet asked, a bit annoyed.

"Well-hehehehe-i-it appears that stripes are not the only patterns on your fur! Hehehehehehehe!" The robot laughed.

The Lombax's ears twitched and he looked down at his torso, arms and legs. They were all covered in gray spots, his fur included. Ratchet's also soot covered ears lowered as he looked at Clank. "This is gonna take me forever to wash out! It's not funny!"

"Heheheheh!" Clank continued to giggle at the sight of the spotted Lombax. Ratchet rolled his eyes in annoyance and stood up. He walked over to the workbench and grabbed a rag, then he began cleaning off some of the gray spots. But, when he looked back down at the workbench, he saw Circuit, who he had actually nearly forgotten about, sitting in the corner of it, the sketchbook in her lap and a pencil in her hand. Ratchet raised an eyebrow. Had she been drawing this entire time? He put the rag down and put on hand on his waist as he leaned on the workbench. He looked at the female robot.

"At least you're nice enough to not laugh at me. You're all wrapped up in whatever you're drawing. What are you drawing anyway?" Ratchet snatched the sketchbook out of Circuit's hands, which startled her, and took a look at what she was drawing. Much to his surprise...very much to his surprise...so much so that his shoulders dropped and his eyes went a bit wide...he saw a flawless sketch of him and Clank on the rocketsled. And by flawless, he meant flawless. Seriously, the details on it were so in depth, he could have sworn that it was a picture taken with a camera. "Whoa..."

"I know, I know, it is really bad. I-It is just that I have never drawn before, a-a-and I was having trouble with getting both of your ears to be the same size, a-and-" Circuit began, but Ratchet raised a hand, which made her stop talking. She was startled to see Ratchet with a stern face, but she relaxed when the face turned into a happy one. She could also detect a bit of pity in the Lombax's expression and voice.

"It's an awesome drawing, Circuit. Nice job." Ratchet then held his fist in front of Circuit, making the small robot's heart jump. But, when the fist stopped in front of her instead of hitting her, she became confused. Circuit stared at Ratchet's fist, wondering what the meaning of this gesture was. Suddenly, Ratchet's other hand grabbed her own hand. He began folding her fingers down, "Here, just make your hand into a fist...there ya go...now I'll just..." Ratchet bumped his fist with Circuit's, the small robot tilting her head. She looked at him and asked innocently.

"What was the meaning of that?"

"It's called a fist-bump. People do it when they're happy or excited," Ratchet explained. But it didn't seem like Circuit was getting it.

"That is...confusing," Circuit said, a confused and sad look coming on to her face.

"Eh, you'll get them soon enough." The Lombax walked away from the workbench, picking up Circuit's drawing on the way. He walked passed Clank and pointed his fists at him. "You got it, right Clank?"

"Indeed I did," Clank said happily as he fist bumped Ratchet. The Lombax put his hands on his back and pushed on it as he stretched. Then he yawned a little.

"Alright, it's getting late...I'm guessing." Ratchet checked his watch. 9:56 PM. "Yep, we've been in here for awhile...I'm gonna go get a shower and then go to bed. Clank, you can show Circuit where she'll be sleeping. I hope the guest room isn't too full of dust or anything like that. 'Night, Circuit."

Circuit quickly gave a nod and said, "Oh! G-Goodnight, Ratchet."

And with that, Ratchet left the garage, leaving Circuit and Clank alone with each other. The two robots sat there in an uncomfortable and awkward silence for a few moments. Circuit shifted on the workbench as she glanced at her male counterpart. It was strange being in a room alone with Clank. She had never really talked to him yet, with the exception of telling him that she didn't remember her name. But it looked like that she had to talk to him a bit more now. What would she say to him, though? She barely knew the guy, but there had to be something to go off of when it came to starting a conversation with him. The little robot placed a hand on her chin and brainstormed conversation topics. What did male robots like? Maybe they liked...or maybe...no...how about...no...Circuit sighed to herself. She was hopeless. But her hopelessness was startled out of her as Clank suddenly appeared next to the workbench. He motioned a hand towards the garage entrance/exit.

"This way, Circuit," the male said in his calm and mesmerizing voice. His brilliant green eyes shining at Circuit's calming purple ones.

Circuit gave a small nod at Clank's command and got down off of the workbench; dropping down onto the stool and then onto the floor. However, when she she tried to get down off of the stool, she discovered that it was much taller than she had expected, so she would have to jump and land. But it seemed that Clank wanted it to go a bit more smoothly. The male reached up and offered Circuit his hand. Surprisingly, Circuit didn't flinch or coward in the slightest way. Instead, though she hesitated several times, she took Clank's hands. She blushed a bit; his metal was warm. Clank helped her down to the ground and then released her. Circuit tilted her head as she caught a quick glance of the male's face before he turned around and lead her out of the garage. He had been blushing as well.

Clank guided Circuit out of the garage and back into the apartment. The place wasn't very lit up. The only light in the apartment were the two robots' eyes and the kitchen light. The two walked over to the kitchen to see why the light was on, and Clank wasn't surprised when they saw Ratchet with a cookie in his mouth. The Lombax's eyes darted between the cookie and his friend, before shrugging. "What? Lombax can't have a cookie every once in awhile?"

Clank rolled his eyes and shook his head while Circuit stared at Ratchet with fascination. There were spots on his ears that she had never seen before. She was so intrigued by them that she ended up saying, "Ratchet, I did not know that you had spots."

Ratchet's hand balled up into a fist as Clank suddenly began giggling a bunch. The Lombax tried to smile genuinely at the female robot, but he was a bit too annoyed with Clank at the moment to pull one off. "These aren't spots, Circuit. It's just soot from the smoke from the rocketsled. Hopefully it'll all come off in the shower..."

As Ratchet tried scratching away some of the soot on his ear, Circuit's attention suddenly became focused on Clank's laughing. It was very interesting; she had never heard a laugh like his before...she guessed. It was so neat that she herself ended up smiling and giggling a bit. "Hehehe...your laugh is really cute, Clank."

Clank's laughter stopped dead in its tracks. His face seemed to have turned a shade of red. Bright red to be exact. He glanced at Circuit and spoke with a quiver in his voice. "I-It is?"

"Uh-huh. If you do not mind me saying, of course."

"N-N-No! Not at all! Hehehehe!" Clank laughed nervously as the red in his face grew brighter by the second. He then pointed down the hallway and urged Circuit along. "Now c-come along, Circuit. Your room is right down here."

"Oh, alright," the female said as she walked alongside the male. Ratchet watched the two walk down the hallway together. His ears twitched curiously and he shook his head. But he was smiling as he did. He then set off for the shower, but not before putting Circuit's drawing on the refrigerator and smiling at it one more time.

Clank opened the door to the guest bedroom and let Circuit in. She looked around the place that was supposedly going to be her room from now on. It was a plain bedroom with a window, desk, closet and, of course, a bed. The small robot walked over to her new bed and stroked the red covers, which were very soft. She then looked over her shoulder and at Clank, who quickly darted his head away from her. Circuit cocked her head a bit. Was he just staring at her...? Shaking the idea out of her head, she placed her hands behind her back and nodded at the male.

"Thank you for everything, Clank."

"O-Oh, it was no issue, Circuit..." The robot paused to think about something. Then he giggled a bit, "Hehehehe...'Circuit'...I really do like that name."

"Heh, you should thank Ratchet for coming up with it," Circuit replied with a small smile. The two sat in more silence, this time feeling a bit more long than last time. Circuit kept a hand on the bed comforter as she smiled at Clank and nodded once more. "Well, good night."

Clan suddenly perked up when he realized that he was preventing Circuit from going to bed by standing in her room. "R-Right. Good night, Circuit. I hope that you sleep well." The small robot then slipped out of the room, closing the door behind him.

Circuit stood where she was for a few moments before climbing up into her bed and lying down on it. She wriggled her way under the blankets and sighed when she finally got settled. The bed was very comfortable and plushy; it was like lying down on a cloud. She definitely would sleep well tonight with a bed like this. Circuit smiled when she thought of when Clank told her that. It was strange, but she found it to be a lot more easier to talk to Clank. Much more easier than expected. Maybe it had something to do with the fact they they were both of the same model. Or maybe not, she didn't know. All she knew for sure was that she liked Clank. He was a nice guy. She was also sure that she was drifting into slumber already, and soon, the faint sound of snoring confirmed that she was correct.

Meanwhile, on the other side of her bedroom door, Clank was standing out in the hallway. The robot placed a hand on his chest and checked his pulse rate, which seemed to have increased since leaving the garage. He was trying to make it go down, but it refused to, making him panic. If his heart kept pulsing like this, then he would need a trip Al's for sure. What baffled him about this, though, was that his heart rate had begun increasing when he had started talking to Circuit. And it skyrocketed when she had grabbed his hand. He wasn't quite sure what the problem was. Maybe Circuit was giving off some sort of signal that made robot's hearts beat faster? Maybe? Whatever it was, it made Clank's heart beat a lot faster, and even feel kind of...warm. Perhaps he was just tired. It was time to get some rest.

However, on his way to the bedroom, the door to the bathroom opened and Ratchet, who was in boxershorts, popped out with his arms folded. "I saw all of that."

"Do not say another word," Clank said, blushing a bit as he escaped to the bedroom. He knew what Ratchet was thinking, but it wasn't the truth. It had barely happened to him before, and it sure wasn't happening to him now. After all, he had just met Circuit. Though she was a female version of himself, and she was a very nice girl, it was just too soon to start jumping to conclusions. There was just no way. There was no way that he was in love with her already.

* * *

 **Original: 2,557 words**

 **Rewrite: 5,312 words**

 **That's gonna be a thing now: comparing the length of the old and new chapter. That way we can see how much the chapter has grown.**

 **Also, Chapter 22 of From Dreams and Nightmares is up in case some of you might not know. It's a slight Clacuit chapter! And Chapter 23 is gonna be full of Clacuit!**

 **Speaking of Clacuit, there was quite a hint of it in this chapter, wasn't there. Except this time it was, like ten times more cute than it was in the original chapter.**

 **Make sure to leave a review while picking up your complimentary toaster!**

 **This is Amberdiamondswords, Lordess of Diamond Swordness, pledger to Tobuscus, signing off!**


	5. Chapter 5

As the morning hours came upon the beautiful city of Metropolis, the sun began to rise, letting its rays wash over the blue and gold buildings. As the bigger rays settled on the city, several small rays managed to find their way into the blinds of a certain apartment window. They beamed through the small slits and reflected off of the silver surface of Circuit, who was sound asleep in her new bed. It was truly a peaceful morning in the city and the apartment. However, inside Circuit's mind, it was anything but peaceful.

The small robot moaned and groaned, constantly shifting under the covers as the dream played out in her head. She couldn't quite tell what was going on, but, whatever it was, she wasn't finding it to be very pleasant.

* * *

 _The darkness of the previous dream seemed to have gone away. But, the light source that she did have, which was a large, blinding white light, wasn't exactly helping her see what was going on. All she could really make out were three figures standing over her, all three of them appearing to be the same model because they looked almost exactly like. However, something was off about the figures. They almost seemed to be...panicking. They were all trembling as they looked down at her. A sudden voice made her and the others jump._

 _"Let me see! Let me see!" Yelled an unpleasant and scratchy voice (it was like someone was talking while scratching a metal fork on a glass plate). A new and taller figure suddenly appeared with the three, this one looking much different. The only thing that she could truly see was a long and ugly head that appeared to have gears and cogs inside of it. It was kind of gross. And she got a closer look at it as the taller figure basically put its face in hers. Her heart jumped as she saw two red and beady eyes staring straight at her. Suddenly, the figure turned to one of the shorter ones and yelled, "ARE YOU ALL IDIOTS?! Have you never seen Agent Clank before?! Agent Clank has GREEN eyes! Not PURPLE! Fix the eye color before I ANNIHILATE ALL OF YOU!"_

 _"Uhhh, s-s-sir? Changing the e-eye color would not help the...the situation..." one of the shorter figures said nervously._

 _"What do you mean?" The scratchy voice asked._

 _"W-W-Well...i-it's not only the eye color th-that we got wrong..."_

 _She tried to listen in, but everything suddenly started becoming fuzzy. The blinding white light was fading and the voices were become more and more unclear. But she tried her best to see and hear everything. The shorter figure uncovered a certain part of her, and the taller went wide eyed. Then he screamed._

 _"What? Did you...is it a...ohhh...OHHHH...NO! YOU IDIOTS! What am I supposed to do with...with...'her' now?!"_

 _Everything then became dark and silent, leaving her completely alone. She shook her head; she wanted to see more. But she couldn't, because it was now time to wake up._

* * *

Circuit jumped a bit as her eyes sprung open. She could feel her heart pulsing at a fairly rapid pace, but it seemed to calm down after a few seconds. After feeling the plushy bed and covers that she was bundled up in, the small robot slowly sat up and looked around, wondering where she was. Then she remembered that she was in Ratchet and Clank's apartment on Planet Kerwan. She rubbed her head; she wasn't going to wake up with memory loss twice.

As Circuit sat there on the bed, she attempted to recall the dream that she had just had. It was a bit hard because, like a lot of people, she had basically forgotten the dream the second she had woken up. So she tried reaching into her memory banks, only to come up with absolutely nothing. The only thing in their was a garbage dump, a cat person, a male version of her, and a circuitboard; no dream. Sighing to herself, Circuit looked around the room that she was in. When she turned her head all the way to the right, she was nearly blinded by ray of sunlight that was trying to get in through the blinds. The small robot uncovered herself and carefully dropped down to the floor. She walked over to the window and opened the blinds, letting daytime flow into the room.

A small smile came onto Circuit's face as she looked outside. Above the city was a flawless blue sky with no clouds whatsoever, and a golden sun accompanying it. There was light hovercar traffic, making the area fairly quiet. It was times like these when someone had a right to say 'it's a beautiful day out'. Circuit could honestly stare out this window all day, but then she realized how badly she wanted to go out and enjoy the day for herself. She wanted to go outside. But, then she questioned if Ratchet and Clank would allow her. Ratchet was very much against her leaving the apartment last night, so he might not let her leave now. Then again, she did fulfill the promise and didn't leave the apartment that night. Maybe, if she was real quiet...she could possibly...

Circuit walked over to the door and opened it ever so gently, making sure that it wouldn't creak or squeak. She poked her head outside and looked back and forth, scanning the area for anyone in the kitchen, living room and hallway. But there was not a soul out there, meaning that both Ratchet and Clank were still in bed. Carefully, Circuit stepped out into the hallway, stepping lightly to make sure that her metal feet wouldn't make any noise. She then crept down the hallway and into the living room, which was full of sunlight. So much that Circuit actually had to put a hand up on the side of her face in order to block it. But, after blocking and walking lightly for a few more moments, she found herself at the door. After taking a quick look behind her to make sure that no one was coming, she reached up and tried to grab the doorknob. But instead, she jumped backwards as the door suddenly opened, revealing a suddenly surprised Ratchet. Circuit placed a hand on her chest and gasped several time (even though she didn't need to breathe), then she got up onto her feet and looked up at Ratchet, who didn't looked very amused. He had his hands on his waist as he towered over her. He then raised an eyebrow.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"N-Nothing," Circuit said innocently.

"...You were trying to leave the apartment, weren't you?"

"No."

"Are you lying?"

"Yes."

Ratchet was caught off-guard by the sudden confession, but he still reached down and picked the robot up by her jacket. He then walked over to the coat rack and hooked her hood onto it, leaving her to hang from it helplessly. Circuit squirmed a bit and tried to free herself, but when he was unable to, she looked at Ratchet with big innocent eyes. "What did you do that for?"

"Because you tried to leave without telling me. You tried to break a promise that you made with me last night. So, as punishment, I put you in timeout," Ratchet said, folding his arms.

"T-Timeout?" Circuit asked, tilting her head. If she was correct, timeout was usually used on children when they did something bad. But...all she did was try to leave the apartment...even though she didn't even bother telling Ratchet or Clank that she was...that was kind of bad. Still, she wasn't a child...well, actually, considering her age...she actually was a child. Circuit couldn't find an argument to propose to Ratchet, so she just let her limbs drop and looked at the Lombax with an apologetic face and voice, "I am sorry."

Ratchet stood there with his arms crossed for several seconds, his eyes stuck on Circuit's expression and her apology ringing in his ears, until his shoulders dropped and his face softened. He rolled his eyes in defeat, but he was smiling, then he grabbed Circuit's hood and lowered her down onto the floor. "Alright, I'll let you off early. You're lucky you're so damn cute."

Circuit tilted her head a bit as she was set down on the ground (but she landed on her heels and she fell backwards onto her rear). Ratchet said that she was cute, meaning that she was attractive in an endearing way. But...what was so cute about her? She had seen herself in a mirror before, and she didn't find herself to be adorable or anything like that. Maybe it was a Lombax thing. Speaking of Lombaxes, Ratchet pointed a finger at Circuit and placed a hand on his waist.

"Now then, no more trying to leave. Next time you do, I'm gonna nail your hood to the coat rack. Alright?"

"Y-Yes, Ratchet," Circuit said with a nod. A question then came to her mind, "Wait, what were you doing out of the apartment so early?"

"Hm? Oh, right! Heh, nearly forgot," Ratchet said, scratching one of his large ears. Then he began walking towards the hallway that led to his bedroom, but not before quickly turning to Circuit, "Stay. Right. There."

"Yes, sir," the robot said, keeping her place on the floor.

"Don't call me 'sir'."

"Sorry..."

Ratchet went down the hallway and into his bedroom while Circuit kept sitting on the floor. She was really confused by Ratchet, who was possibly one of the most interesting guys that she had ever met...she guessed. He was so nice to her, and he didn't make her call him 'sir' or 'mister' or anything that made him seem above her when it came to authority. Ratchet treated Circuit like an equal, and it was...odd. It wasn't that she didn't like that or that she didn't like Ratchet, because she did. She just wasn't used or was never treated as nice as he treated her. Circuit guessed that she should attempt to try and change her attitude towards him and attempt to be a bit more friendly as well. After all, Ratchet was letting her stay in his home. It was only fair.

Circuit lifted her head as she heard the sound of a door closing, and then she stood up when she saw Ratchet with Clank. But Clank didn't exactly look like he was up for being...well...up. His eyes were a bit dim and his movements were a bit slow. Ratchet must have woken him before his battery was fully charged, leading him to this drowsy state. But he seemed to perk up a bit when he saw Circuit (which was something that Circuit didn't understand). Ratchet looked down at the two robots with what appeared to be an excited expression. But Clank didn't seem as amused as he rubbed his left eye.

"Ratchet, what is the meaning of this?" He asked tiredly.

"I've got surprise for you two," Ratchet replied happily. Then he motioned the two to follow him, "Follow me upstairs."

"Can you please just tell us what it is instead of leaving us in suspense?"

"Sorry! Didn't catch that! I'm way across the room!" Ratchet said as he walked out the door. His voice started to become distant as he walked down the hallway. "Now I'm in the hallway, so I can't hear anything that you say! You better follow me if you want to talk!"

Clank sighed and shook his head, his shoulders dropping. That Lombax could be annoying sometimes, and this was one of those times. Circuit, on the other hand, wasn't paying attention to how ignorant Ratchet was being, but instead was looking up at the ceiling. "Upstairs? But this apartment is on the top floor, right? So going upstairs would lead to the roof, would it not?"

"Yes, that is correct. And that is why I am so worried..." Clank sighed and started reluctantly walking towards the door. "Well, we better follow him."

Circuit quickly caught up with Clank and followed him out the door and down the hallway, eventually arriving at a set of metal stairs. The two, due to their small stature, struggled to climb up each step, but they managed. Then Clank opened the metal door at the top, and they were both hit by a refreshing gust of wind. Circuit's eyes seemed to brighten as she stepped into the beautiful morning. The sun's rays spread all over her, and she could feel the warmth coming from them. It was then that she realized that she had never been in the sun before (well, outside at least) ever since she had escaped from the dump. She had to admit that being outside was wonderful. Circuit could have stayed put and just enjoyed being outside all day, but Ratchet was urging them to come to him. The two robots were surprised to see the rocketsled next to the Lombax. Clank walked up to it and observed it.

"Ratchet, what is the rocketsled doing out here?"

"We're gonna ride it through the city," the Lombax replied with a smile.

"What? After watching it break down last night? Are you trying to get us killed?" Clank asked with anger.

"No no no, you don't get it. I got up early this morning and gave it another look over. I found out that it had a clogged thruster, so I took care of that. Once it was done, the thing worked fine. I even rode it around the garage for awhile to make sure that everything was working fine. This thing is ready to go, Clank, trust me."

However, even after having Ratchet's word, Clank looked unconvinced. "Even if what you are saying is true, why would you want to suddenly ride it around the city? Just knowing that it works again should be good enough."

"See, now I was thinking that same thing. That is until I remembered her," Ratchet said, pointing at Circuit.

"Me?" Circuit asked, placing a hand on her torso. "What do I have to do with the rocketsled?"

"Well, I was thinking that, since you're gonna be living here from now on, you should at least get to look around the city. And what better way to do that than to ride around on the rocketsled?" Ratchet said, placing a hand on his rocketsled. Then he suddenly remembered something. "Oh! Check this out!"

Ratchet grabbed the back of Clank's seat, which looked bigger for some odd reason, and then pulled back. The back of the seat slid one foot back and locked into place, making a whole new seat. Circuit's face brightened up when Ratchet revealed her seat. It was strange, she had never been this happy before. In face, she didn't recall ever being truly happy ever since she woke up in the dump. It...it felt nice. It felt nice to be happy. So nice that she didn't want it to go away. It didn't seem like it was going to, though, as she went over to the rocketsled and climbed up into her seat (with the help of Ratchet of course). It wasn't the most plushy seat, but she was still comfortable in it. Ratchet, who was happy that Circuit liked her seat, was about to climb into the pilot seat until he saw Clank's face. The robot's arms were crossed and he had a look on his face that said 'there is no way that I am getting on that'. The Lombax gave him his own look.

"Come on, Clank, the sled is fine, trust me."

"Uh-huh. You also said that it was fine the last time. And what happened? We nearly died after plummeting to the ground mere seconds after takeoff!" Clank argued.

"Well, I was getting kind of impatient last time. But this time I took a while to look everything over, triple check that everything was working, and even rode it around for awhile. It's perfectly safe. Now hop on!"

"I am just not so sure that it is-"

"Come on, Clank. It will be fun," Circuit said from her seat. She smiled at the green eyed robot, which, for some reason, made his face become a bit warm. Ratchet noticed this and then pointed a hand towards Circuit.

"You heard the lady," he said with a shrug. Clank's gaze darted between the two before sighing. He hung his head a bit in defeat and then reached his hand upwards. Ratchet grabbed him and then hoisted him up into his seat. Clank's metal fingers grasp the bar in front of him, and he then told Circuit to do the same ("knowing him, you'll have to hold on tight"), and Circuit obeyed. Ratchet took his place in the pilot's seat and turned the key in the ignition, making the engine roar to life. The sled hovered several inches off of the ground and bobbed a bit (Clank grasped the metal bar tighter). The Lombax looked over his shoulder and shouted. "Are you guys ready?" Clank hesitated before nodding while Circuit looked unexpectedly ready to go. It seemed like it should have been the other way around. But Ratchet didn't really care about what they thought about the impending ride, and he showed that by whipping his head back around and twisting one of the handlebars.

Ratchet hit the accelerator and the rocketsled went flying off of the building...only to start soaring downwards. Clank yelled and Circuit covered her eyes as they waited for their imminent death. Only they didn't hit the ground. Instead, Ratchet pulled on the handlebars and the sled shot straight forward, carefully beginning to pilot past buildings and traffic. The two robots calmed down a bit when they realized that they weren't dead, but then Clank became angry as Ratchet looked over his shoulder and laughed, "Looks like I really had you guys going there!"

Clank lurched forward and flicked Ratchet's sensitive ear, earning a painful yelp from the Lombax. "That was not funny!"

"Oh, don't be such a whiner!"

"You made me think that we were going to die!"

"Yeah, and it was funny!"

"It was not!"

As Ratchet and Clank had their little argument, Circuit sat in her seat quietly, taking in the fact that she was flying right now. She would be thrilled and even be smiling, but instead, she found herself shifting in her seat a bunch of time. Her fingers kept adjusting themselves on the metal safety bar in front of her and occasionally slipping from it. She could feel her heart pulsing at a slightly faster rate than usual. They were...they were pretty high up in the air. Really high up actually. There was about one hundred foot drop underneath, which would kill anyone who fell from the height that she was at. Circuit 's arms slowly wrapped around the safety bar as she felt her heart rate increase even more. This had never happened to her before; what was wrong with her? Ratchet must have been thinking the same thing, because, after making sure that they had a clear flight path, turned around and looked at her with concern.

"Are you doing okay, Circuit? Cause you look like you're...not doing okay."

"U-Uhhh...yes, I am doing fine, um...Ratchet? Do you think that you could maybe...bring us closer to the ground? Please?" Circuit asked, pointing downwards.

"Closer to the ground? Why?"

"Umm, well, I uhh...I do not know," the small robot replied, grasping the safety bar even tighter.

Ratchet shot Circuit a confused look as she coward in her seat. She looked very uncomfortable, and apparently it from being up so high. The Lombax's ears bounced as he perked up and realized what the problem was. "Circuit...are you afraid of heights?"

"Huh?" Circuit asked, looking at Ratchet. She shifted awkwardly in her seat again and shrugged, "I do not know...am I?"

"Well, you don't like being up high," Ratchet said. "But if you're not sure about it, try looking down and see what happens."

Circuit gulped at Ratchet's idea. Look down over the edge of the rocketsled? That sounded...unsettling. But, if she really did have a fear of heights, then she would have to find out sooner or later. Besides, Clank was looking at her, and she didn't want to look pathetic in front of him. So, Circuit took a deep, non-air filled breath and tilted her head to the side and looked down.

Worst. Decision. Ever.

Circuit felt her heart rate skyrocket and her eyes shot wide open. When she looked down, instead of a beautiful city, she saw an endless abyss of darkness that she could fall into and die. It was like looking into a living nightmare. A small scream escaped her mouth and she nearly shot out of her seat. She grabbed onto the nearest part of the rocketsled and hugged it tightly. The small robot trembled greatly and cried out, "Okay! I am afraid of heights! I do not like heights!"

Ratchet nodded, then he spoke. But, when he did, his voice seemed to crack a bit due to laughter being held back, "Yeah, I thought that that was the problem. I'll bring us lower. In the meantime, you can work on letting go of uh...what you're holding there. Cause I think that you're making him a bit nervous."

Circuit tilted her head and opened her eyes a bit when Ratchet said that last part of his sentence. She was making him a bit nervous? The rocketsled had a gender? That was weird...wait...wait a minute...she...she did grab the rocketsled, right? Circuit shifted one of her hands ever so slightly, and her heart skipped a beat when what she was holding shifted as well. Her eyes went wide. Did she seriously...was she hugging...? Circuit looked up ever so slightly and jumped a bit when she saw that her guess was right. When she was scared by looking down, when she went for the safety bar, she had missed, and latched onto the next thing in front of her. And what was that next thing? It was a wide eyed Clank, who seemed to be frozen in his place, his face totally red (if he was an organic).

Circuit quickly jumped back in her seat and removed herself from Clank. Her face was also turning a bright shade of red, "O-Oh my goodness! Clank, I uhh...I-I thought that...I l-looked down and...I was sc-scared so I just uhh...I thought that you w-w-were-uhhm...I...I-I...I am sorry!"

Clank shook himself out of his trance, but the red in his face was still lingering. He didn't want Circuit to feel bad for what had done, because it wasn't wrong, so he spoke to her, but his voice cracked several times like Ratchet's, "I-It is quite alright, Circuit. You were frightened and...I-I was happy to be of assistance in calming you down."

Circuit grasped her safety bar and placed her chin on it, her face still red. Clank said that he was happy to have helped her calm down, he wasn't mad at her or anything. He was such a nice guy, it was unbelievable. She wished that he would show some sort of disapproval towards her, but he didn't, which just made the red in her face increase. Speaking of which, why was her face going to red? The embarrassing part was over, so there was no need to have such a color in her face. Maybe she could use some coolant when they got back to the apartment, that may help. But right now she had to help clear up the embarrassing air surrounding her and Clank. He did help her calm down after all; she had to do something. The small robot prepared to say something, anything that could help her express her gratitude, when the rocketsled suddenly jerked to a stop and then flew at a slow rate. Circuit nearly went crashing into Clank, but the safety bar saved her. Meanwhile, Clank was giving Ratchet an irritated look.

"Ratchet, what was that for?"

"Sorry," Ratchet said over his shoulder. Then he pointed down, "I was lookin' down there. I think that they're unveiling a new statue in that plaza."

Clank looked down (Circuit didn't) and saw a crowd of people, several of which were cameramen, and there was something hidden underneath a giant red tarp. From the way that the tarp sat on the object it was hiding, Clank also guessed that it was a statue. Ratchet piloted the rocketsled a bit lower so they could get a closer look. One of the cameramen noticed them and pointed their camera up towards them. Ratchet smiled and waved, Clank just stood there, and Circuit quickly coward in her seat. She hoped that they didn't get her on film, she didn't want to be put on TV. Several other cameramen looked up at them, and a reporter noticed this. He grabbed his microphone and spoke into it, pointing at the three.

"Well, it seems like intergalactic heroes Ratchet and Clank have decided to join in on the unveiling while riding a...what the heck is that? A hoverbike? Ah, who cares? We've got a statue to unveil-"

"Cool," Ratchet said.

"The fourth tribute statue to our very own Captain Qwark!"

"Aaaand we're gone!"

Ratchet twisted one of the handlebars on the sled and they dashed off. Circuit came out of hiding and looked behind her at the small ceremony. She tilted her head a but when she remembered something that the reporter had said. Though she could have heard it wrong because she was at a fairly good distance, but she was sure that she had heard someone call Ratchet and Clank 'intergalactic heroes'. Curious about this being true or not. Circuit reached forward and tapped Clank on the shoulder lightly. Clank turned his head around to look on her, which looked kind of creepy, but she asked her question anyway.

"Hey, Clank, is what the reporter said true? Are you and Ratchet in-ter-gal...in-tre-gla...galactic heroes?"

Clank opened his mouth to say something, but Ratchet quickly turned around and cut him off, "Yeah, we didn't tell ya that?"

"No," Circuit said, shaking her head.

"Oh, well...yeah, we're heroes. We've done our fair share of fighting bad guys, including but not limited to evil Blargian chairmen, savage pets, insane robot doctors, genocidal Cragmites, another savage pet, and crazy nerds. It's tiring but we manage to pull through each time."

"That all sounds very dangerous."

"Hell yeah, it's dangerous! That's the fun part!" Ratchet noticed the look that Clank was giving him. His childlike excitement went away as he cleared his throat, "A-And of course, it's nice knowing that everyone in the galaxy is safe."

Circuit slumped a bit in her seat as she took a moment to process what Ratchet had just told her. Ratchet and Clank were intergalactic heroes who had saved the universe on multiple occasions? That was...incredible! She was staying at an apartment that belonged to heroes! She wished that she would have known earlier so she could have offered better behavior and been motivated to draw a better picture of them. However, she wondered what a pair of heroes were doing working as mechanics? Maybe it was a hobby? Or a second job? After all, they still needed some sort of income when they weren't out saving people. Anyway, the mechanic thing didn't matter, Circuit was still amazed by the fact that the two people in front of her had fought bad guys and saved galaxies. She wished that she could be like them, all strong and heroic. But there was no way that she could be like that; she was a weakling. She would get crushed before the bad guy could even move. But Ratchet and Clank would probably take down the bad guy before she could even blink. Though she had never seen the two fight, she was sure that it would be an awesome sight. They would probably show amazing skill, precision, and intelligence like she had never seen, just like in real life-

The rocketsled suddenly jerked again, making Circuit bang her head on the safety bar, which pulled her out of her thoughts...painfully. She looked around Clank and at Ratchet, who was looking a bit nervous. He was twisting the handlebars in an attempt to keep going, but the rocketsled didn't go with it. Clank looked at the Lombax.

"Ratchet, what is going on? Why did we stop?"

"Uhhh...uhhhh...heh-heh," Ratchet placed a hand on the back of his neck and rubbed it nervously. Then he looked over his shoulder at the two robots, "So ummm...y-you are gonna love this, cause I-I know...I know your sense of humor! But uhh...well...y-y-you know how I said that I rode the sled around the garage?"

"Yes."

"Well, about that, it seemed like that riding it around the garage kind of used up some...a-a lot of gas...that I didn't replace."

"What are you saying?" Circuit asked, beginning to panic a bit.

"What am I saying? Well, that I'm trying to say is uhh...we're uh...we're going down!" Ratchet said as the rocketsled began to drop. He quickly went for the handlebars and attempted to pull up as the two robots quickly grabbed onto their safety bars and waited for death to come upon them. Circuit had half a mind to grab into Clank again, but she decided not to, thinking that it would have been rude. Ratchet tried to steer the rocketsled as it plummeted towards one of the plaza's, trying to make them go for a tree for a possible better landing. But it still didn't want to listen, and they were heading towards a fountain instead. The Lombax yelled over his shoulder, "Brace for impact!"

The three of them shielded themselves at the rocketsled crashed into a fountain, destroying the majority of it and making several bystanders yell in fear. Ratchet was thrown into the water, and did his best to hold his breath. He was dazed for a few moments, but after he shook himself out of it, he looked around the water, seeing floating parts of his rocketsled. But that wasn't what he wanted to find. What he wanted to find was floating several feet away from him. Ratchet kicked his feet and grabbed Clank and Circuit, then he got onto his feet and pushed upwards, taking a big breath when he surfaced (the water turned out to be only three feet deep). He carried the two robots out of the fountain and several feet away before falling onto his knees. He had sustained no injuries, which was a miracle, and it seemed that Clank and Circuit were fine as well, which was also a miracle. But they both were coughing up water. Their mouths must have been open when they fell into the fountain. It took them a few minutes to get it all out (and for Ratchet to catch his breath) but when they all settled, Clank looked at Ratchet. He was mad.

"Ratchet! You told us that the rocketsled was safe to ride!"

"Hey, I only forgot to fuel it up! It was an accident!" Ratchet said, raising his hands defensively.

"One of us could have been killed!" Clank snapped, "I knew that I should not have trusted your word!"

"I said that it was an accident! I forgot to gas it up!"

"You always forget things!"

"Hey, we forget things all the time when we're repairing things!"

"That may be true, but you said-"

"Clank, please." Ratchet and Clank looked away from each other and at Circuit, who was wringing out her jacket. "Ratchet said that it was an accident, so you do not need to keep blaming him. Everyone makes mistakes, you know."

Ratchet and Clank stared at the female robot for a few long seconds, very surprised about the sudden outburst. They had expected her to sit there and be quiet while they bickered, but it looked like that they were wrong. Clank looked at Ratchet with an apologetic face, "I am sorry, Ratchet..."

"Aw, it's alright, pal. I would have been pissed too if it was the other way around," Ratchet said with a small smile. He glanced at Circuit and prepared to say something to her, but all three of them were startled by the rocketsled's windshield flying down and shattering on the ground in between them. They all looked at the fountain, which was totally destroyed, and the rocketsled, which was also destroyed. They all cringed as the front part of the sled detached from the body and made a large splash in the water as it fell. Several people gathered around it, gasping at the sight. Ratchet's ears lowered a bit, "Umm...we can pay for that, right?"

An uncertain look came onto Clank's face. Then a worried one replaced it as several police cars pulled up to the scene, "Oh, dear..."

"U-Ummm...I think we should leave...th-the planet...at least until the heat dies down," Ratchet said, his heart jumping at the sight of the police cars. He quickly got on his feet and pushed Clank and Circuit along with him. "L-Let's go to Pokitaru! Yeah! That sounds nice!"

"But what about-" Circuit started, looking over her shoulder at the scene, but Ratchet quickly cut her off and turned her head back around.

"No no, don't look! They can sense guilt..." The Lombax hissed, leaving the scene as fast as he could.

 _Meanwhile..._

"I hope that you, the citizens of Aleero City are as excited as I am! Just look at that statue!" The reporter said, the camera pointing up at the covered statue of Captain Qwark doing a heroic yet awfully generic pose. Several people had their camera ready so they could take a picture of the new statue. "Captain Qwark has done many heroic things, including stopping a vicious Doctor Nefarious from terrorizing our city-"

"Terrorizing? That's a bit of an understatement," said the scratchy voice of an annoyed, beady eyed robot.

After absolutely nothing for several minutes, the robot found himself being bored of watching the news, and prepared to turn on something else when something caught his attention. There was a weird motor sound coming from the TV, and it seemed that it was real and not just his television set, because several civilians turned around and looked in the air. The robot found himself on the edge of his seat, hoping that it was some sort of bomb or something along those destructive lines. But he just found himself becoming angry as Ratchet and Clank came riding in on a...whatever that was. A hoverbike or something. Why did they always have to be in his face, even when he was just watching the news. It was enough to make him want to ANNIHILATE SOMEONE-wait...what was that?

Nefarious grabbed the remote and rewound the news broadcast. He swore that he had saw something on the back of the hoverbike thing. Of course, he might have been seeing things, but he doubted it, he wasn't insane or anything. But he knew that he had saw something. So, he skipped back to when Ratchet and Clank were first entering the picture and played it super slowly. There was Ratchet...then Clank...then...then...AH! He jammed his finger on the pause button, freezing the picture. He looked at the large screen closely, observing the back of the hoverthing. There was another robot riding with them, and it looked a heck of a lot like Clank! The only difference he could see was the eyes, which were purple, and the black jacket...wait a minute...purple eyes? Black jacket? Clank clone?

"WHAAAAT?!" Nefarious suddenly shouted. "It can't be! Sh... _SHE_ can't be! NO! That can't be her! SHE'S _DEAD_! I SAW IT MYSELF! What is she doing with _THOSE TWO_!" He placed a clawed hand on his giant green dome and rubbed it worryingly. He knew this robot...he knew that she knew stuff about him. About all of the plans that he had created. She could be telling those two about them right now, selling him out! This was very bad. He had to go and get that robot before she could say a single thing if she hadn't already. However, that would prove to be difficult. After all, every police force was looking for him. Just hearing his name would have them running with a pair of handcuffs and a prepared jail cell. No, he would have to have someone do it for him, someone that he knew could do it...!

An evil smiled formed on Nefarious's face as an idea came to mind. He knew just the person who could help him with this retrieval mission. However, it would take time to get him working for him again, but he would have to go through with it, and soon. The quicker the better. So, Nefarious turned around and yelled into the darkness. "LAWRENCE! GET SOME TOOLS!"

"What for, sir?" Lawrence asked, suddenly appearing next to Nefarious, which scared the bolts out of the doctor. After recovering from his near heart attack, Nefarious stood up straight and put his hands together.

"She's alive, Lawrence. The girl Clank. I don't know how, but I saw her hanging out with Clank and his stupid friend on the news. We have to get her before she spills any secrets that she learned of when she was here with us. So, I think, in order to do this without getting caught by the authorities, we have to seek the help of an old ally."

* * *

 **Original: 3,175 words**

 **Rewrite: 6,507 words**

 **HOLY LONG CHAPTER, BATMAN!**

 **I am VERY happy with how this chapter turned out. I like so so much better than the original version. But, now it's time to move on from this chapter and focus on the main idea of next chapter: a trip to Pokitaru (in order to avoid the cops)!**

 **I think that next on the update list is From Dreams to Nightmares. We heard from old Circuit, now we have to hear from modern Circuit. Plus, I've got something really cute for that chapter. And...you know...Clacuit stuff.**

 **Make sure to leave a review while picking up your complimentary toaster!**

 **This is Amberdiamondswords, Lordess of Diamond Swordness, pledger to Tobuscus, signing off!**


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